Women Children First And Sem Co Op Are Under New Management

• Women & Children First
• Lynn Mooney and Sarah Hollenbeck, new owners of Women & Children First

Bookselling has never been a sure way to unfathomable riches, but if you were going to take over an independent bookstore, there have been worse times than the present. Particularly if you’re going to take over a beloved neighborhood institution like Women & Children First in Andersonville or the Seminary Co-op and 57th Street Books in Hyde Park. Barnes & Noble is fading and Borders—always the dominant chain in Chicago—is gone, and, in some neighborhoods anyway, patronizing local businesses is considered a civic virtue.

(For the record, while Hollenbeck has no confirmation that Women & Women First, the fictional bookstore in Portlandia, was named after her store, she has heard that Fred Armisen lived in Edgewater during his days at iO. “I imagine he must have seen the bookstore and it got into his brain.”)